Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 1 (of 3), 1603-1642Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 1 (of 3), 1603-1642
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 17th century
proposed actually to remove them from their houses or holdings unless
they interfered with a demesne, but for this forbearance there was no
adequate security.
[Sidenote: A Wexford jury will not find the King's title,]
[Sidenote: and strong measures are taken.]
These people, or many of them, had not been unwilling to see English
gentlemen come among them, and even to give up some land in order to
secure the remainder, but the wind changed when it was discovered
that only something like one in ten would have any estate at all. The
King's title had been found by the lawyers, but it was necessary that
there should be a verdict also, and in December 1611 a Wexford jury
refused to find one. The case was removed into the Exchequer with the
same jury, and after much argument eleven were ready to find for the
King and five against him. The minority were sent to prison and fined
in the Castle Chamber, and the case was remitted to Wexford, where the
eleven obedient jurors were reinforced by Sir Thomas Colclough and
John Murchoe or Murphy, 'now a patentee in the new plantation,' and
therefore an interested party, and the King's title by Lord Lovel's
attainder was thus found.[143]
[Sidenote: Indecision of the King.]
[Sidenote: People who benefited by the settlement.]
[Sidenote: The King is convinced by the complainants,]
[Sidenote: but soon changes his mind.]
[Sidenote: The King approves of the plantation.]
The tendency of James I. to give decisions upon one-sided evidence,
and to veer round when he heard the other side, is well illustrated
by his dealings with the Wexford settlement. The case for the Irish
inhabitants, as matters stood at the end of 1611, may be taken as
sufficiently stated in the petition presented by Henry Walsh on their
behalf. Walsh seems to have been a lawyer, but he was in possession of
220 acres as a freeholder, which were reduced to 130 by the plan of
settlement. He stated that he and his fellows had surrendered upon the
faith of a regrant in common socage 'reduced from gavelkind and other
uncertain tenures' in consideration of paying a head rent of 90_l._
to the Castle of Ferns and of 60_l._ into the Exchequer. The regrants
were delayed, but on the King's title being set up he was induced
to grant patents to several undertakers, 1,500 acres apiece being
assigned to Sir Laurence Esmond, 'servitor, and a native of Wexford,'
and Sir Edward Fisher, also a servitor. It afterwards appeared that
19,900 acres were disposed of in this way, 500 to Nicholas Kenny the
escheator, 1,000 to William Parsons the surveyor and future Lord
Justice, 600 to Conway Brady, the Queen's footman, 1,000 to Francis
Blundell, afterwards Vice-Treasurer, 1,000 to Sir Robert Jacob the
Solicitor-General, and so forth. Some of these were put into possession
by the sheriff even before the issue of their patents, military force
being employed. Walsh said a hundred thousand people were affected by
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